thespian's review - SPOILERS!!
MISCHIEF WROTE A GAY MUSICAL SET IN ANCIENT GREECE FUCK YEAHHHHHH
it was amazing, every single person on the stage was absolutely incredible, everyone's singing and dancing was genuinely so so good
thespis - main character, comes up with the idea for a play as a prayer and plays dionysus in said play
polly - thespis's sister, writes the play they perform
adonis - man who believes himself to be a powerful and righteous warrior. believes himself that is, nobody else agrees
melampus - the 'elder' of the group who is searching for her ex boyfriend (who was carried away by birds on the day of their wedding). she has visions about them that are incredibly vague
atlas - melampus's weak servant who eventually finds himself (he's the one who is in love with thespis, luckily this is reciprocal otherwise i would have thrown a fit)
the tyrant - absolutely our pantomime villian here, extravagant clothing, falsetto, the whole shebang and done incredibly well
bart - our ensemble member played by the one and only matt cavendish who led the show by almost narrating? he was sort of introductory, he was ALSOOOO the ex boyfriend it later turns out
rhapsodes - the other bart like character who led the charge, played by allie dart!! she was great, her and matt together absolutely aced it
the actual plot in and of itself was hilarious - they come up with the idea of acting to complete a ritual/prayer for dionysus (mmni reference?!) and it takes off, leading to the 'tyrant' who runs ancient greece attempting to stop the group by turning them against each other. he pushes thespis (the actor playing dionysus who came up with the idea for the play) to start a one man show, and then pushes the others into thinking he has betrayed them. eventually dionysus's show ends with the amphitheatre being hostile and he is arrested and sentenced to death by the tyrant - and obviously then saved by the rest of the group (where the man who's been pining for him confesses his love and that's all very lovely and sweet). they then eventually manage to win around the tyrant who joins their group as a 'producer', setting up a travelling show for them.
there are so many meta jokes that i loved - one about how 'when they set up their travelling show theyll be rich and famous, they can even have people who fill in for them if they're sick or on holiday' to which an understudy/ensemble member at the side of the stage playing a guard responds 'we are RIGHT HERE'
there's a brilliant joke for theatre kids about a warm up, they start to 'prepare for their performance', and thespis encourages them to 'warm up'. he gets them to form up in a circle, and then asks if they're ready to start, and when they say yes turns to his left and yells 'ZIP!' while pointing (zip zap zoo 😭) to which everyone asks 'what this is for?' he pauses and then says 'nobody knows' (nobody really does, do they?)
overall absolutely a 10/10, one of the best things i've watched in ages - i feel like every show mischief puts on atm is better than the last, id be shocked if this didn't end up on the west end - it got a standing ovation from everyone, i absolutely loved jt
send me asks/comments if you wanna know more bc i never know what to put in stuff like this but yeha it was sososososoososisisisisisoskksosososo good and if you get a chance to see it then do bc oh my god
